Victims of Charlottesville rally argue the violence was planned
The violent rally started with a mob of men brandishing burning torches in the heart of a U.S. city while chanting racist, antisemitic slogans, and it ended with a woman murdered. More than four years later, a civil trial starting Monday in Charlottesville, Virginia, will revisit those events. The long-delayed lawsuit in federal court against two dozen organizers of the march will examine one of the most violent manifestations of far-right views in recent history. The plaintiffs accuse the organizers of the rally of plotting to foment the violence that left them injured, while the defendants counter that their views constituted free speech and that the bloodshed stemmed from self-defense.
Coronavirus vaccines should begin soon for children ages 5-11
Children ages 5 to 11 may be eligible for COVID vaccines by early next month, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. He projected a timetable for young Americans to be vaccinated with at least one dose by Thanksgiving and to be fully immunized by the December holidays. Food and Drug Administration regulators Friday released their evaluation of data from the Pfizer-BioNTech submission for emergency authorization of a lower-dose vaccine for young children. An advisory panel to the FDA will consider Pfizer’s application for those ages 5 to 11 on Tuesday. Children 12 and older have been eligible for vaccination since May.
Biden meets with Manchin and Schumer
as Democrats race
to finish social policy bill
President Joe Biden huddled with key Democrats on Sunday to iron out crucial spending and tax provisions as they raced to wrap up their expansive social safety net legislation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said Democrats were close to completing the bill, displaying confidence that the negotiations over issues such as paid leave, tax increases and Medicare benefits bedeviling the party for months would soon end. Biden met with Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, one of the critical centrist holdouts on the budget bill. The White House called the breakfast at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, a “productive discussion.”
Sheriff’s officials: Man
held after driving
into vaccine
mandate protesters
A 64-year-old man was arrested Saturday after he drove his Jeep Wrangler into a crowd of people protesting vaccine mandates in Palmdale, injuring one woman, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said. “A witness stated a man disagreed with the protest, entered his vehicle and intentionally drove toward the protesters,” Deputy Trina Schrader said in a statement Sunday. William Aslaksen was arrested about 90 minutes after the incident, which occurred about 3:25 p.m. He was booked into the sheriff’s Palmdale station on suspicion of felony assault and was being held there Sunday in lieu of $50,000 bail, inmate records show. He is scheduled to appear Tuesday in Antelope Valley Municipal Court in Lancaster. The injured woman, who is in her 40s, was taken to a hospital because of injuries that were not life-threatening.
By wire sources
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